Cross posted at Calitics.

In the continuing battle over Blackwater and America's soul, Senator John Kerry called for hearings today into the renewal of Blackwater's State Department contract. Why? In Kerry's words:

To learn that Blackwater's no-bid security contract for Iraq was renewed even as a grand jury investigates the company and the IRS considers its own review of the company's books, raises serious concerns that merit Senate hearings. How was this decision made? What was the process that concluded there were no alternatives? What was the extent of Blackwater's lobbying effort?, said Senator Kerry. "Five years into this war, there's been too much abuse of the contracting process in Iraq and too little oversight, and nowhere do the questions loom larger than in Blackwater's role and the Administration's apparent imperviousness to skepticism where this corporation is concerned.

Coincidentally, this news comes on the same day that news broke that Blackwater vehicle prototypes might be on the Defense Department's shopping list. This is two more fronts in the battle over Blackwater's legitimacy. On the one hand, Blackwater continues to seek out new niches to keep itself afloat after we finally leave Iraq, and on the other hand, Democratic leadership continues to step to block Blackwater. Kerry's hearings will likely take place in the Middle East Subcommittee in the Foreign Relations Committee. Also serving there is Senator Barbara Boxer. Now Senator Boxer has earned the benefit of the doubt over her years in the Senate, but this is a huge issue that goes well beyond this aspect of Blackwater or the State Department. This is a statement about how we as a nation are going to treat organizations like Blackwater.

I have a lot of faith in Barbara Boxer to do the right thing, but that doesn't mean it isn't vital that we watch and make sure she helps drive the point home here. There's simply never any excuse for Blackwater to be paid with our tax dollars. Until we can lay down a federal level smackdown (Rep. Schakowsky's Stop Outsourcing Security Act is another great opportunity) on this sort of thing, it's just gonna be more rounds of whack-a-mole around the country. It's good to see more leadership in DC on this issue, but now we've gotta get the follow-through.